1 


© 


A PAPER  READ  BY  WlLLIAM  EDGAR  SlMONDS  AT  AN  OPEN 
MEETING  OF  THE  CONNECTICUT  STATE  GRANGE, 

Hartford,  Conn.,  Jan.  11,  1898. 


A substantial  citizen  of  Connecticut,  the  head  of  a manufact- 
uring establishment,  who  averred  with  seeming  candor  that  he 
had  no  prejudice  in  the  matter,  asked  the  substance  of  the  above 
question  of  the  present  writer — in  a letter. 

The  question  is  one  proper  to  be  put,  no  matter  what  the 
motive  of  the  questioner.  Public  moneys  are  not  to  be  ex- 
pended except  for  good  and  sufficient  reason — as  a rule  only  for 
the  public  benefit.  If  there  is  no  sufficient  reason  to  justify  the 
teaching  of  agriculture  by  a state  institution  it  is  time  to  close 
the  doors  of  Storrs  Agricultural  College.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
a sufficient  reason  does  exist  it  ought  to  be  possible  by  search- 
ing to  find  it  out.  Let  us  enquire. 

The  question  which  bars  the  way  at  the  very  threshold  of 
the  inquiry  is, — do  those  fundamental  and  organic  principles 
which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  the  American  social  order  justify 
the  expenditure  of  public  moneys  for  the  education — of  any 
sort — of  the  people  in  general? 

No  one  properly  informed  will  doubt  the  competence  of  the 
jurist,  Thomas  M.  Cooley,  to  answer  that  question.  .At  page 
84  of  “Cooley  on  Taxation”  it  is  said: 

“It  may  be  safely  declared  that  to  bring  a sound  education 
within  the  reach  of  all  the  inhabitants  has  been  a prime  ob- 
ject of  American  government  from  the  very  first.  It  was  de- 
clared by  colonial  legislation  and  has  been  reiterated  in  consti- 
tutional provisions  to  the  present  day.  It  has  been  regarded 
as  the  imperative  duty  of  the  government;  and  when  question 


9 


has  been  made  concerning  it  the  question  has  related  not  to 
the  existence  of  the  duty  but  to  its  extent.  But  the  question  of 
extent  is  one  of  public  policy  and  addresses  itself  to  the  legis- 
lature and  the  people,  not  to  the  courts.” 

This  statement  by  Judge  Cooley  is  a self-evident  truth  to 
Americans.  Education — the  education  of  each  individual  so 
far  as  is  practicable — is  a matter  of  the  highest  possible  public 
concern.  The  perpetuity  of  our  free  institutions  rests  absolutely 
upon  education  generally  diffused;  republican  institutions  are 
not  self-executory;  there  are  Central  and  South  American  Re- 
publics which  have  most  admirable  constitutions  and  laws  on 
paper  which  will  always  remain  mere  paper  so  long  as  their 
present  educational  conditions  continue.  Education  is  the  soil 
out  of  which  has  grown  our  marvelous  material  and  social  effici- 
ency. The  control  of  education,  even  to  forcing  all  the  people 
to  acquire  it,  and  including  the  taxation  of  the  whole  community 
to  furnish  the  means,  is  a power  exercised  by  the  state  without 
question  for  hundreds  of  years.  This  exercise  of  a power  abso- 
lutely requisite  for  the  preservation  of  our  free  institutions, 
which  has  given  justifying  results — political,  material  and  social 
— for  centuries,  and  as  to  the  propriety  of  which  the  people  and 
the  courts  agree  with  substantial  unanimity  is  something  not 
now  open  to  dispute. 

But  granting  the  proposition  just  laid  down,  it  may  seem 
still  possible  to  urge  that  however  sound  and  justifiable  it  may 
be  to  expend  public  moneys  for  that  kind  of  education  which  is 
useful  to  men  in  all  callings  of  life,  as  for  instance,  in  the  teach- 
ing of  reading,  writing  and  arithmetic,  it  does  not  follow  that  it 
is  justifiable  to  expend  public  moneys  for  teaching  a special  kind 
of  education,  of  direct  and  immediate  use  only  to  a special  class 
of  people,  such,  for  instance,  as  the  science  and  art  of  agri- 
culture. 

The  last  sentence  in  the  quotation  from  Judge  Cooley’s  re- 
marks deals  with  precisely  such  an  attempted  discrimination  as 
that.  He  says — “the  question  of  extent  (of  education)  is  one 
of  public  policy  and  addresses  itself  to  the  legislature  and  the 
people,  not  to  the  courts,”  meaning  that  public  moneys  can 
properly  and  lawfully  be  expended  for  special  education  if  the 
legislature  sees  fit  so  to  order. 


3 


In  examining  other  than  superficially  an  attempted  distinc- 
tion of  the  kind  just  mentioned  it  is  proper  at  the  outset  to  in- 
quire what  education  is,  in  its  true  essence,  and  why  the  body 
politic  desires  each  individual  to  have  it.  There  is  a certain 
kind  of  basic  education  which  is  a practical  necessity  for  every 
man  in  civilized  society — that  which  comprehends  reading,  writ- 
ing and  arithmetic.  Every  man  needs  that  much  of  education 
in  order  that  he  may  transact  the  most  ordinary  kinds  of  busi- 
ness. But  the  public  does  not  specially  care  to  furnish  a man 
with  that  much  of  education  simply  because  it  is  of  personal 
value  to  him.  The  public  interest  in  a man’s  education  is  not 
a charitable  thing;  it  is  a matter  of  enlightened  selfishness. 
The  public  only  cares  that  a man  shall  have  an  education  be- 
cause the  having  of  it  by  him  inures  to  the  public  good.  That 
education  which  the  public  cares  for  necessarily  includes  this 
primary  sort  of  education  and  it  may,  therefore,  be  dismissed 
from  further  consideration  as  regards  the  question  with  which 
we  are  now  concerned. 

The  present  writer  believes  that  education,  in  its  real 
essence,  consists  in  the  acquirement  of  the  habit  of  observation 
and  study,  and  the  habit  of  correct  reasoning  on  whatThe  mind 
perceives  and  what  it  conceives — to  make  which  effective  for 
most  purposes  needs  to  have  added  the  capacity  for  clear  and 
accurate  expression.  Incidentally,  in  the  acquirement  of  an  ed- 
ucation, one  may  lay  away  a great  store  of  facts,  but  that,  after 
all,  is  only  an  incident.  The  body  politic  desires  the  individual 
to  have  education  because  reason  indicates  and  experience 
demonstrates  that  the  great  majority  of  those  who  have  it  are — 
by  reason  of  the  resulting  development  of  their  understanding 
and  intelligence — devoted  to  the  maintenance  of  free  institu- 
tions ; they  are  apt  to  love  order  and  justice  and  to  give  encour- 
agement to  improvement  and  enterprise. 

Education  is  not,  primarily  and  chiefly,  the  storing  of  the 
memory  with  facts.  It  is  primarily  and  chiefly  the  improve- 
ment of  man  as  a perceiving  and  reasoning  machine.  It  is  the 
improvement  of  the  individual  as  a perceiving  and  reasoning 
machine,  through  education,  at  which  the  body  politic  aims. 

We  are  now  ready  to  ask  whether  the  science  and  art  of 


4 


agriculture  present  a field  suitable  and  profitable  for  observation 
and  study,  with  phenomena  and  questions  fit  for  and  deserving 
of  the  application  of  man’s  reasoning  powers  thereto.  The 
question  can  be  answered  on  the  instant.  The  man  who  can 
name  a better  field  for  observation  and  study  or  he  who  can 
cite  phenomena  and  questions  which  form  better  grist  for  a 
reasoner’s  mill  will  well  deserve  the  title  of  an  original  dis- 
coverer. 

The  student  of  agriculture  has  a vast  area  of  the  whole 
kingdom  of  nature  which  not  only  invites  but  demands  his 
observation  and  study,  including  the  forecasting  of  the  weather; 
the  chemistry  of  widely  differing  soils,  foods  and  plants  under 
about  all  possible  conditions  of  climate  and  temperature;  the 
extremely  subtle  chemistry  of  cream  setting  and  butter  making; 
the  physiology  of  plants  and  animals;  irrigation  and  drainage 
with  their  effect  on  drought  and  moisture;  the  mystery  of  seed 
germination  with  the  added  mystery  of  growth  to  leaf,  flower 
and  fruit;  determining  which  of  the  burrowing,  creeping,  walk- 
ing and  flying  things  are  friends  to  agriculture  and  which  are 
foes ; the  improvement  of  plants  and  animals  through  heredity, 
treatment  and  breeding;  and  so  on  and  on.  A catalogue  of  all 
the  phenomena  that  a genuine  student  of  agriculture  must  ob- 
serve and  study  would  be  extensive  indeed ; and  it  is  one  of  the 
plainest  truths  in  the  world  that  they  furnish  an  unequalled 
grist  for  the  application  thereto  of  thought  and  reason,  not  only 
in  their  variety  but  in  the  value  of  the  results,  material  and 
mental,  possible  to  be  obtained. 

The  vital  purpose  of  education  is  the  training  and  energiz- 
ing of  the  faculties  of  observation  and  reason ; and  the  study  of 
agriculture  is  quite  as  well  adapted  to  the  attainment  of  that 
purpose  as  any  other  study  whatsoever. 

That  proposition  may  have  in  it  something  of  novelty  for 
some  persons,  chiefly  for  the  reason  that  education  of  the  ad- 
vanced sort,  heretofore,  has  mainly  centered  in  a study  of  Greek 
and  Latin  with  some  addition  of  language,  logic,  philosophy, 
physics,  physical  science,  mathematics  and  modern  languages. 

The  novelty  of  the  proposition  need  not  of  itself  distress  any 
body.  Certain  of  the  physical  sciences  now  have  their  acknowl- 


5 


edged  places  in  the  higher  educational  curriculum  but  it  is  not 
long  ago  that  the  ancient  languages  with  the  fringes  just  men- 
tioned— but  not  including  physical  science — had  the  field  all  to 
themselves  and  flouted  the  notion  of  sharing  that  field.  The 
very  beginning  of  the  change,  as  regards  the  whole  civilized 
world,  seems  to  have  been  in  1T2T  when  Thomas  Hollis,  a Lon- 
don merchant,  amidst  jeers  and  sneers  from  the  learned  world 
of  that  day,  persisted  in  his  design  to  endow  Harvard  College 
with  a “professorship  of  mathematics  and  physical  science.” 
The  establishment  of  this  professorship  at  Harvard  made  no 
particular  impression  on  the  college  world. 

The  next  step  in  a similar  direction — this  time  distinctively 
recognizing  industrialism — was  tqken  in  1816.  Then  Harvard 
College  induced  by  the  liberality  of  Count  Rumford  (originally 
Benjamin  Thompson  of  Woburn,  Mass.,)  established  a “new 
institution  and  professorship  in  order  to  teach  by  regular  courses 
of  academical  and  public  lectures,  accompained  by  proper  ex- 
periments, the  utility  of  the  physical  and  mathematical  sciences 
and  for  the  extension  of  the  industry,  prosperity  and  happiness 
and  the  well-being  of  society.”  The  beginnings  at  Harvard 
under  the  Rumford  professorship  were  not  extensive;  they  con- 
sisted of  four  lectures  a year;  in  182T  the  professor  resigned 
and  the  chair  remained  unfilled  for  seven  years.  The  first  sub- 
stantial addition  of  physical  science  to  a college  curriculum 
seems  to  have  been  made  by  the  University  of  Virginia  from 
1818  to  1825  under  Jefferson’s  direct  effort  and  as  a result,  in 
substantial  measure,  of  what  George  Washington  had  said  and 
written.  The  example  set  by  this  institution  seems  to  have 
created  a general  demand  for  the  teaching  of  those  branches  of 
learning  in  American  colleges  and  it  gradually  came  about. 
But  practically  it  is  only  within  the  last  seventy-five  years  that 
physical  sciences  have  been  permitted  within  the  charmed  circle 
which  furnishes  the  higher  education. 

The  idea  of  getting  the  essential  results  of  a genuine  higher 
education  by  the  teaching  of  agriculture — upon  a good  common 
school  foundation — supplemented  by  economics,  American  po- 
litical history  and  thorough  drill  in  the  use  of  the  English 
language,  is  far  less  novel  to-day  than  was  the  idea  of  getting 


6 


it  by  teaching  physical  science  seventy-five  years  ago.  There- 
fore nobody  needs  to  be  disturbed  by  the  proposition  by  reason 
of  its  novelty. 

The  field  of  phenomena  and  fact  offered  by  agriculture  is 
broader  and  richer  than  that  offered  by  any  other  single  field 
whatsoever  and  it  is  a necessary  consequence  that  when  we 
have — as  we  shall  have  whenever  the  demand  therefor  is  made 
effective — teachers  as  competent  to  instruct  in  that  field  as  those 
now  readily  to  be  had  for  other  fields,  the  results  of  the  teach- 
ing of  agriculture  will  be  correspondingly  rich  and  extensive. 
The  possibilities  of  the  case  are,  by  no  means  to  be  judged  by 
what  has  been  accomplished  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  enter- 
prise. 

In  view  of  the  great  field  of  research  and  discovery  there  is 
in  agriculture,  the  vast  variety  of  phenomena  it  does  and  must 
continue  to  present  for  reasoning  and  experiment,  and  the  value 
of  the  results  both  material  and  mental,  possible  to  be  obtained, 
it  is  presumptuous  for  the  friend  of  the  teaching  of  any  other 
thing  to  assume  or  claim  that  there  is  any  other  field  better 
fitted  for  that  improvement  of  man  as  a perceiving  and  reason- 
ing machine  which  is  the  essential  aim  of  education,  so  far  as 
the  public  interest  therein  is  concerned.  It  would  be  well  for 
those  who  doubt  the  soundness  of  this  proposition  to  review  the 
investigations  made  by  Lawes  and  Gilbert  at  Rothamsted  dur- 
ing the  last  half  century  and  their  mental  and  material  results; 
and  a glance  at  Edward  Atkinson’s  letter  on  the  “Marsden 
Process”  in  the  “Country  Gentleman”  of  Dec.  17,  1897,  might 
be  of  value. 

Possibly  what  has  already  been  said  is  sufficient  to  justify 
the  expenditure  of  public  moneys  for  the  teaching  of  the  science 
and  art  of  agriculture  but  there  are  special  reasons  not  yet 
mentioned  which  justify  it. 

Agriculture  is  the  great  basic  industry  of  the  world.  Most 
other  industries  are  based  and  built  upon  it.  Those  industries 
which  are  not  so  based  and  built  are  yet  dependent  on  it  for 
their  existence  and  prosperity.  With  the  exception  of  the  pro- 
ducts of  the  fisheries,  and  such  game  as  comes  from  remaining 
areas  of  wildness,  all  our  food  is  the  product  of  agriculture. 


7 


With  the  slight  exception  of  such  furs,  feathers,  and  skins  as 
are  taken  from  wild  creatures,  all  our  clothing  is  made  from  the 
products  of  agriculture.  Food  and  clothing  are  the  two  great 
primal  human  necessities  and  they  are  the  products  of  agricul- 
ture. Civilization  is  not  possible  without  civilized  agriculture. 
And  no  other  industry  can  exist,  in  even  a decent  degree  of 
effectiveness  and  proficiency,  in  the  absence  of  agriculture. 

Thoughtful  men,  soberly  mindful  of  the  public  welfare,  have 
always  recognized  these  truths.  Washington  showed  his  ap- 
preciation of  them  in  his  last  message  when  he  said: 

“It  will  not  be  doubted  that  with  reference  either  to  individ- 
ual or  national  welfare  agriculture  is  a prime  necessity.  In 
proportion  as  nations  advance  in  population  and  other  circum- 
stances of  maturity  this  fact  becomes  more  apparent  and 
renders  cultivation  of  the  soil  more  and  more  the  object  of  pub- 
lic patronage.  Institutions  for  promoting  it  grow  up  supported 
by  the  public  purse,  and  to  what  other  object  can  it  be  more 
dedicated  with  greater  propriety  ? ” 

And  George  William  Curtis  said: 

“ The  test  of  national  welfare  is  the  intelligence  and  prosper- 
ity of  the  farmer.” 

Quotations  to  the  same  purport  might  be  multiplied  almost 
indefinitely  but  the  words  of  these  two  wise  and  noble  men 
suffice. 

Let  some  comparison  be  instituted  between  manufactures  and 
agriculture,  both  as  regards  the  United  States  and  the  state  of 
Connecticut.  By  the  census  of  1890  (Census  Abstract,  p.141), 
there  were  4,712,622  persons  in  the  United  States  engaged  in 
“manufacturing  and  mechanical  industries,”  a number  which 
needs  to  be  diminished  one -half  for  the  purposes  of  the  present 
comparison  (see  page  civ.-cvi.,  population  vol.,  part  2,)  exclud- 
ing 59,692  bakers,  205,028  blacksmiths,  105,747  shoe  repairers, 
45,988  builders  and  contractors,  104,951  butchers,  11,148  butter 
and  cheese  makers,  611,025  carpenters  and  joiners,  12,536  watch 
repairers,  494,696  dressmakers  and  milliners,  4,543  locksmiths 
and  bell  hangers,  1,176  hair  workers,  158,701  masons,  218,988 
painters  and  glaziers,  12,295  paper  hangers,  19,962  photogra- 
phers, 38,932  plasterers,  28,206  plumbers,  7,023  roofers  and 
slaters,  181,649  tailors  and  12,713  upholsterers — in  all  2,334,999 
to  be  deducted,  leaving  the  number  of  people  engaged  in  man- 


ufactures  2,877,623,  while  the  number  engaged  in  agriculture 
(Census  Abstract,  p.  78)  was  (laborers,  3,004,061;  apiarists, 
1,733;  dairy  men  and  women,  17,895;  farmers,  planters  and 
overseers,  5,281,557 ; gardeners,  florists,  nurserymen,  etc.,  72,- 
601;  stockraisers,  herders  and  drovers,  70,729;  other  agricul- 
tural pursuits,  17,147 ; butter  and  cheese  makers,  11,148) ; 
8,476,911.  And  while  the  capital  invested  in  “manufacturing 
and  mechanical  industries”  (Census  Abstract,  p.  141),  including 
twice  the  number  of  people  actually  engaged  in  manufactures, 
was  6,500  millions  of  dollars  (16,525,156,486),  that  invested  in 
agriculture  (Census  Abstract,  p.  99)  was  some  16,000  millions 
($15,982,267,689). 

These  ratios  do  not  obtain  in  Connecticut,  but  nevertheless 
the  Connecticut  ratios  are  not  what  they  are  generally  supposed 
to  be.  The  census  of  1890  (Census  Abstract,  p.  99)  gives  Con- 
necticut farm  valuations  (land,  fences  and  buildings,  $95,000,- 
595;  implements  and  machines,  $3,075,490;  live  stock,  $9,974,- 
618;)  as  $108,050,708,  and  the  capital  invested  in  “manufactur- 
ing and  mechanical  industries”  (Census  Abstract,  p.  141)  as 
$227,004,496.  Eliminating,  for  reasons  already  stated,  oneflialf 
of  this  as  investment  in  “mechanical  industries,”  other  than 
“manufacturing  industries,”  leaves  the  capital  invested  in  man- 
ufactures in  Connecticut  little  if  any  exceeding  that  invested  in 
agriculture,  a position  that  is  strengthened  by  the  Connecticut 
grand  list  for  October  1,  1896,  which  gives  “2,474,213  acres  of 
land,”  valued  at  $63,557,617,  and  “11,635  mills,  distilleries, 
manufactories  and  investment  in  mechanical  and  manufacturing 
operations,”  valued  at  $82,224,663.  Increase  both  these  items 
by  the  well-known  margin  between  tax-list  values  and  those 
which  owners  expect  to  realize  under  favorable  conditions; 
decrease  the  larger  sum  by  the  amount  which  belongs  to  “me- 
chanical operations,”  as  distinguished  from  “manufacturing 
operations,”  and  the  result  will  well  accord  with  that  deduced 
as  above  from  the  census  reports. 

The  census  of  1890  (Census  Abstract,  p.  76,)  gives  the  num- 
ber of  people  in  Connecticut  engaged  in  agriculture,  fisheries 
and  mining  as  48,676.  It  elsewhere  appears  that  something 
over  3,000  are  to  be  credited  to  fisheries  and  almost  none  to 


9 


mining;  so  that  Connecticut  stands  credited  with  upwards  of 
45,000  agriculturists,  a figure  that  needs  to  be  increased  by  add- 
ing bee-keepers,  dairymen  and  daily  women,  cheese  and  butter 
makers,  gardeners,  florists,  nurserymen,  vine  growers,  stock 
raisers,  herders  and  drovers. 

The  1890  census  (Census  Abstract,  p.  141,)  gives  the  num- 
ber of  people  in  Connecticut  engaged  in  “manufacturing  and 
mechanical  industries  ” as  149,189,  of  whom  (Pop.  vol.,  part  2, 
p.  cx.,)  85,804  are  women.  When  this  149,189  is  cut  in  half,  to 
eliminate  those  engaged  in  “mechanical  industries ” which  are 
not  “manufacturing  industries,”  and  about  one-third  of  the  re- 
mainder are  dropped  to  eliminate  the  children,  the  number  of 
people  engaged  in  manufactures  in  Connecticut  exceeds  little  or 
not  at  all  the  number  of  people  engaged  in  agriculture. 

But  notwithstanding  the  vast  preponderance  of  agriculture 
over  manufactures  in  the  United  States  at  large,  both  in  capital 
and  workers,  and  the  substantial  equality  of  the  two  in  Con- 
necticut, the  earnings  of  manufacturing  and  other  mechanical 
workers  are  in  vastly  the  larger  ratio. 

While  some  four  and  two-thirds  millions  of  people  engaged 
throughout  the  United  States  in  “manufacturing  and  mechan- 
ical industries,”  with  a capital  of  6,500  millions  of  dollars 
(Census  Abstract,  p.  141,)  turned  their  labor  into  (19,372,487,283 
gross  product,  less  $ 5, 162, 044, 076  cost  of  materials=$4,165,- 
393,207  net)  some  4,000  millions  of  dollars  of  product,  on  the 
other  hand  some  eight  and  a half  millions  of  people  engaged 
throughout  the  United  States  in  agriculture,  with  a capital  of 
some  16,000  millions  of  dollars  (Census  Abstract,  p.  99),  only 
realized  ($2,460,107,454  farm  products,  less  fertilizers  $38,469,- 
598=$2,421,637,856  net)  some  2,500  millions  of  dollars  which, 
at  the  manufacturing  ratio — even  with  per  capita  equality  of 
capital — would  have  been  three  times  as  much,  or  $7,513,793,276. 
And  the  returns  for  manufacturing  labor  in  Connecticut  are 
quite  as  much  above  those  for  agricultural  labor  as  they  are 
throughout  the  United  States  at  large  (Census  Abstract,  p.  99, 
141). 

If  these  small  agricultural  earnings,  taken  with  the  fact  that 
agriculture  is  the  great  necessary  and  basic  industry,  do  not 


10 


constitute  a justification  for  the  fostering  of  agriculture  by  the 
expenditure  of  public  moneys  for  the  teaching  of  its  art  and 
science,  then  evidence  and  argument  and  reason  are  but 
vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit. 

If  any  man  is  inclined  to  say  or  to  think  that  Connecticut 
can  afford  to  neglect  her  agricultural  interests  in  view  of  the 
wealth  and  prosperity  which  have  come  to  her  through  manu- 
factures, it  will  be  better  than  well  enough  to  remember  that 
manufactures  can  never  in  the  future  be,  relatively  to  other 
industries,  what  they  have  been  in  the  past.  The  capacity  for 
the  production  of  manufactures  is  almost  unlimited,  both  here 
and  elsewhere,  but  there  is  no  possibility  of  a corresponding 
increase  of  a market  for  those  manufactures.  The  present  man- 
ufacturing capacity  of  the  world  is  fully  equal  to  its  consuming 
capacity.  Meanwhile  other  states  in  America,  and  foreign 
nations  as  well,  are  developing  manufacturing  industries  with  a 
rapidity  which  surely  foretells  a competition  for  Connecticut 
amounting  to  a limitation  in  the  near  future  if  not  to  distinct 
repression.  The  decline  of  the  cotton  manufactures  of  New 
England  has  already  begun;  that  of  heavy  manufactures  of 
iron  will  soon  follow. 

Along  with  the  general  development  of  manufactures  and 
commerce  throughout  the  world,  economic  and  social  relations 
grow  increasingly  complex  and  delicate ; disturbances  in  those 
relations  will  in  the  future  be  of  more  frequent  occurrence  than 
heretofore;  their  influence  will  be  more  widely  spread,  and 
their  disastrous  effects  more  lasting. 

Agriculture,  as  a gainful  industry,  has  an  element  of  stabil- 
ity which  will  be  lacking  in  the  manufacturing  industry  of  the 
future.  The  area  of  cultivable  land  is  a fixed  quantity  while 
the  population  of  the  earth,  under  improved  and  improving  hy- 
gienic conditions,  is  increasing  at  a rate  unequalled  in  the 
world’s  history. 

All  these  people  must  have  food  wrung  from  the  bosom  of 
mother  earth  and  no  man  can  add  an  acre  of  surface  to  the 
globe.  It  will  be  very  strange  if  there  are  not  periods  within 
the  next  half  century  when  that  stability  characteristic  of  agri- 
culture proves  the  mainstay  of  communities  ordinarily  depend- 


11 


ent  in  large  part  on  manufactures.  Neither  Connecticut  nor 
any  other  manufacturing  state  can  afford  to  neglect  its  agricul- 
ture. 

After  years  of  consideration  and  debate,  Congress,  in  1862, 
entered  deliberately  upon  the  policy  of  fostering  agriculture  by 
providing  endowments  for  its  teaching.  In  1887  and  1890  Con- 
gress added  to  those  endowments  and  the  states  generally  have 
with  equal  deliberation  availed  themselves  of  the  aid  thus  prof- 
fered. The  condition  of  the  development  of  this  congressional 
enterprise  down  to  1896,  is  indicated,  with  some  omissions,  in 
a little  pamphlet  issued  by  the  United  States  Department  of 
Agriculture  entitled  “Statistics  of  Agricultural  Colleges  and 
Experiment  Stations,  1896.” 

This  pamphlet  gives  the  following  list  of  State  Institutions 
enjoying  the  Federal  grants  under  the  Acts  of  Congress  of  July 
2,  1862  and  August  30,  1890. 

Alabama. — State  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College, 
(Alabama  Polytechnical  Institute)  at  Auburn;  State  Normal 
and  Industrial  School,  at  Normal. 

Arizona. — University  of  Arizona,  at  Tucson. 

Arkansas. — Arkansas  Industrial  University,  at  Fayette- 
ville. 

California. — University  of  California,  at  Berkeley. 

Colorado. — The  State  Agricultural  College,  at  Fort  Col- 
lins. 

Connecticut. — Storrs  Agricultural  College,  at  Storrs. 

Delaware.— Delaware  College,  at  Newark;  State  College 
for  Colored  Students,  at  Dover. 

Florida. — Florida  Agricultural  College,  at  Lake  City; 
Florida  State  Normal  and  Industrial  College,  at  Tallahassee. 

Georgia. — Georgia  State  College  of  Agriculture  and  Me- 
chanic Arts,  at  Athens;  Georgia  State  Industrial  College,  at 
College. 

Idaho. — University  of  Idaho,  at  Moscow. 

Illinois. — University  of  Illinois,  at  Urbana. 

Indiana. — Purdue  University,  at  Lafayette. 

Iowa. — Iowa  State  College  of  Agriculture  and  Mechanic 
Arts,  at  Ames. 


12 


Kansas. — Kansas  State  Agricultural  College,  at  Manhattan. 

Kentucky. — Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College  of  Ken- 
tucky, at  Lexington;  State  Normal  School  for  Colored  Persons, 
at  Frankfort. 

Louisiana. — Louisiana  State  University  and  Agricultural 
and  Mechanical  College,  at  Baton  Rouge;  Southern  University 
and  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College,  at  New  Orleans. 

Maine. — Maine  State  College  of  Agriculture  and  the  Me- 
chanic Arts,  at  Orono. 

Maryland. — Maryland  Agricultural  College,  at  College 
Park. 

Massachusetts. — Massachusetts  Agricultural  College,  at 
Amherst. 

Michigan. — Michigan  State  Agricultural  College,  at  Agri- 
cultural College. 

Minnesota. — The  University  of  Minnesota,  at  Minneapolis. 

Mississippi. — Mississippi  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  Col- 
lege, at  Agricultural  College  ; Alcorn  Agricultural  and  Mechan- 
ical College,  at  Westside. 

Missouri. — College  of  Agriculture  and  Mechanic  Arts  of 
the  University  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  at  Jefferson  City ; 
Lincoln  Institute,  at  Jefferson  City. 

Montana. — The  College  of  Agriculture  and  Mechanic  Arts, 
at  Bozeman. 

Nebraska. — The  University  of  Nebraska,  at  Lincoln. 

Nevada.- -Nevada  State  University,  at  Reno. 

New  Hampshire. — The  New  Hampshire  College  of  Agri- 
culture and  the  Mechanic  Arts,  at  Durham. 

New  Jersey. — Rutgers  Scientific  School  (The  New  Jersey 
State  College  for  the  Benefit  of  Agriculture  and  the  Mechanic 
Arts,  at  New  Brunswick.) 

New  Mexico. — The  New  Mexico  College  of  Agriculture 
and  Mechanic  Arts,  at  Mesilla  Park. 

New  York. — Cornell  University,  at  Ithaca. 

North  Carolina. — The  North  Carolina  College  of  Agri- 
culture and  Mechanic  Arts,  at  West  Raleigh;  The  Agricult- 
ural and  Mechanical  College  for  the  Colored  Race,  at  Greens- 
boro. 


13 


North  Dakota. — North  Dakota  Agricultural  College,  at 
Fargo. 

Ohio. — Ohio  State  University,  at  Columbus. 

Oklahoma. — Oklahoma  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  Col- 
lege, at  Stillwater. 

Oregon. — State  Agricultural  College  of  Oregon,  at  Cor- 
vallis. 

Pennsylvania. — The  Pennsylvania  State  College,  at  State 
College. 

Rhode  Island. — Rhode  Island  College  of  Agriculture  and 
Mechanic  Arts,  at  Kingston. 

South  Carolina. — The  Clemson  Agricultural  College,  at 
Clemson  College. 

South  Dakota. — South  Dakota  Agricultural  College,  at 
Brookings. 

Tennessee. — University  of  Tennessee,  at  Knoxville. 

Texas. — Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College  of  Texas,  at 
College  Station;  Prairie  View  State  Normal  School,  at  Prairie 
View. 

Utah. — The  Agricultural  College  of  Utah,  at  Logan. 

Vermont. — University  of  Vermont  and  State  Agricultural 
College,  at  Burlington. 

Virginia. — Virginia  Polytechnic  Institute  (State  Agricult- 
ural and  Mechanical  College),  at  Blacksburg;  Hampton  Normal 
and  Agricultural  College,  at  Hampton. 

Washington. — Agricultural  College  and  School  of  Science 
of  the  State  of  Washington,  at  Pullman. 

West  Virginia. — West  Virginia  University,  at  Morgan- 
town; The  West  Virginia  Colored  Institute,  at  Farm. 

Wisconsin. — University  of  Wisconsin,  at  Madison. 

Wyoming. — University  of  Wyoming,  at  Laramie. 

The  pamphlet  gives  “ value  of  permanent  funds  and  equip- 
ment of  land  grant  colleges,  1896,”  as  exhibited  on  the  next  two 
pages. 


Value  of  Permanent  Funds  and  Equipment  of  Land-grant  Colleges,  1896. 


© 3 a 
05  ©.S' 

£ S=l  3 

^ o' 


OO 

oo 

OO 


OOOr 

oooc 

OOOr 

ooon: 

ooooc 


OO  'O  'OOO 

oo  : h :ooo 
do  :cf  :dod 

O O O O O L- 

oo_  :cq_  :©j©t- 
m'o'ido'HH  :oo  ioho 

NH®  : 'H  H 


n©ot~ 

^oo® 

HOOin 


oohch  :oooot|( 
©OI>©Cq  '©00©l> 
mot-on  :©oo©h 


OOOOO  'OOO  'OtMOOOOOQOO 

©oho©  :ooo  iroooooooomo 


lOCfliOOO 

t>rHCOI>cd 


iioio  :oxooooor 


oo  :oo  :<m  :oomcoooooho 

OO  ’OO  • r~-  ©005000000H© 

iqc|  :©o  ;»©  : oswiqqiqoooffio^ 
io'h  : m'x'  :©'  : x'co'cq'n'  id  t>cq*idido5  © 

H • H H CQ  CQ  Cq 

& \ \ \ iH 


:hooo«ooo^o^®o 

,'tt-SCOOOOmOOifflO 

^tJOOCOLOOONOOXO 


©OH© 

oqcoo 
ddt>© 
©ox© 
©cm© 
t'- d h i.'- 

COML’Ol 


«• 


<N, 


NiOOCOMOOOOOOlOO 

fflt'OOCt'OOOOOCl'-O 

t~ co  Of-  oo  05  © qqqooso 
o od  o'©  oo  co  id  ©"•  do‘i  do"  © © 

■#H®1'  COHlOCqCqOqXHCO 
OH  HiOCOCOCqH 


oooo 

ooox 

oooo 


t>ooo 

t-ooo 

dddd 

OOOOO 

OOOOK5 

edoo 

<MH 


t>0©© 

IMOOO 

050010 


C0000500000 
©©©HOOOOO 
©^©xinco©©_©in 
cq'  O'  o'  h o'  id  o'  o'  oo' 
H©  inH 


NON 

05010 

t>oo5 

IMO05 

NCi 

o' OH 

HffiH 


000050 

oooooo 
dooHo 
OCONffl 
iO  O in  H O 
Hio'o'o'od 
cq  h 


COOOOOOOGOO 

N000000050 

oioHododdd 

H005000i0r-0 

05©t~00005t>0 

o'  o'  o' c?  of  id  o'  io“  oo' 
OlO  (M  whh 


HOOIOOOOOOOOOHH 

MOOHocooooooon 
0 10  005  OeCOOiOOOOHM 
h'h'h  oo  ldooido  cc'dfd'idafio' 
Hcsc-cqcoxcqcq  o f— 1 05  cq  o 

H (NIOIM05H  HCOHH 


OOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOO OOOOOO  'OOOO  'OOOO 

oooo 0-o oooooooooooo oooooo  : © © © © :oooo 
oddoocf ddddididdddddddodiddd  :ddod  :dddo 
©CO©'  OOOCOOKOOOOOOSOIOONOO  : <N  O H O 'OOOO 
©©©©_  o ro o o s h qqqqqqqn q« qq  , co©t>in  qqqq 
ido'cdd  cf  of  i o'  o'  o'  t>  i>  m'  o'  o'  o'  t>  c-'  id  h'  cq'  o' x'  10'  : t>  o'  i> of  cq'm'co'ad 
Cqn  XMH  iHHOhJlrft'JliM  cqn  ;H©in  ;hhhh 

o h cq  : in  : 


cs®q  a 

£<©  §h 

bo x^S 
odH 83 

C*  u CO 

p 


1 1® 
o §«2 


£2,2 
£ ¥ 5 
05=2 


d 3x 


flH 
i-  cS 

© s 

5 © 


cs  ce 


C5© 

050 

i>© 


Is 

a. 9 

® CO 

ce  ce 


® o © a ® 

fg&SSS 

.2  © 


dg^cog^ocecs^ce.s 

H □ H rt  H /I'l  r-^  n— 1 , 


co  o cq  m o cc 
05  o m m o o 
in  d co  h"  d co 

QOiCOOH 

®oomoe© 
cdo*t>  cf  idcq' 
mncsoox 
H co  m m h h 


•oo 
:oo 
:oo 
■ ©© 
:oo 
:©‘id 
: oh 
, >n 


mo 

coo 

ido 

c-o 

mo 

H®“ 

H>n 

HO 


oeoo 

OHO 
«»© 
coin  os' 


© © 
_ tc  a 
03  a 

■2(§'S 

© CS  ® 


•OOO 

:oot> 

:©HC5 

■oeoo 
:©cqx 
: m'co'cq' 
■cqn 
. cq  h 


o © m m o 
t>oi>t~© 

cq^oiocqin 
i>©'x'ed© 
HH©HX 
mo  h 


© © 
,a  h 

2§ 

-tw 


So®  a 
-r-sPS 


mooo 
m ooo 

05000 

h'x'o'o' 

OXXH 


O © 3 © +S  & &.rH  rS  ^ 


S2§ggog®^  |p2‘s  § cs  S5  ®S  ©3  Si-s  2 27; 

^ uiu  'LJ  r“ ^ ^ ‘d  t>  $l]  p H H »rH  M ® O CO  CO  ® ^ ^ h 

§ ® 13s  s og  © © 


Value  of  Permanent  Funds  and  Equipment  of  Land-grant  Colleges,  1896.  ( Continued .) 


Miscella- 

neous 

equipment. 

§ ;s 
fis 

\%%% 
ill;  1 

niocf©  : 

20,437.17 

2,000.00 

3,000.00 

■8  IS 

;§  ;S 
:©  :c 
:<n“ 

% ;§§ 

\ ill 
fl  s‘ 

:5  : 

t j 

50,000.00 

3,000.00 

$4,250,381.00 

Library. 

§!!l!ill!l 

t>O<NOjHC0r-T 

:|||||| 

20,000.00 

600.00 

50,000.00 

5,000.00 

$1,171,381.00 

Machinery. 

2 \i 

i ii 

t>  lr 
% \ 

2.500.00 

1.500.00 

9.752.00 

100.00 

14,963.54 

50,000.00 

8,000.00 

12,000.00 

12.60 

10,000.00 

12,000.00 

30.000. 00 

65.000. 00 

50,000.00 

8,000.00 

50.000. 00 

10.000. 00 

$1,055,607.00 

Apparatus. 

: :1 

iggggs  :s 

liiri  :i 

oooW  X .cs 

9,000.00 
26, 9( 
27,500.00 

15.000. 00 

30.000. 00 

1,500.00 

50.000. 00 

2,000.00 

200,000.00 

10.000. 00 

© 

© 

© 

1C 

ctT 

rH 

th 

Buildings. 

$1,623,916.79 

72,554.49 

40.000. 00 

82.500.00 

20.000. 00 

52.600.00 
600,000.00 
122,100.00 

194.000. 00 

33.000. 00 

80.000. 00 

159.400.00 
314,707.91 

157.308.00 
474,561.26 

139.000. 00 

404.000. 00 

135.000. 00 

215.000. 00 
25,000.00 

1,000,000.00 

100.000. 00 

© 

© 

g 

X 

00 

to 

to 

g 1 

m 

Farm  and 
grounds 
owned  by 
the  insti- 
tution. 

$99,218.91 

19.500.00 
5,000.00 

25.000. 00 
5,000.00 

14.250.00 

80.000. 00 

15.000. 00 

15.000. 00 

89.000. 00 
106,370.00 

48.320.00 

26.800.00 

15.000. 00 

30.000. 00 

52.000. 00 

10.000. 00 
40,000.00 

2.750.00 
150,000.00 

3.270.00 

© 

X 

eo“ 

© 

CC 

oc 

Land-grant 
of  1862 
still  un- 
sold. 

$155,000.00 

: 

:8 

© 

© 

X 

OS 

© 

«• 

Other 

permanent 

funds. 

$5,588,398.43 

:8  : 

it  i 

:o  : 

|t| 

§ :o 

§ :g2 

o ;io 

rH  /OT 

8 ig 

§ ; 
g i 

t>  : 
« : 
(M  ; 

© 

© 

1> 

© 

co“ 

10 
•<# 

11 

Other 

land-grant 

funds. 

ig 

ig 

I 

230,000.00 

© 

© 

to 

to 

© 

<m~ 

X 

N 

5* 

* 

• 

rH  | 

co  : 

t>  ' 

: 

ii 

! ; < 

i i| 

111  i i 

IP  I i 

:§s 

III 

111 

135.500.00 

344.312.00 
285,000.00 

90,000.00 

302,000.00 

© 

© 

© 

<N 

CO 

Oi 

00 

State. 

\%i 

:|4 

1 

■a|| 

o?  j: 
K*  c8  « 

® o c 

WaY 

North  Dakota 

Oklahoma 

uregon 

Pennsylvania 

xviiuue  j.  s iciiiii 

So.  Carolina  (Clemson  Col.) 
So.  Carolina  (Orangeburg). 

Iff 

: 

i II 
ii! 
Sfi 

ills 

OSSP 

Vermont 

Virginia  (Blacksburg) 

Virginia  (Hampton) 

Washington 

W.  Virginia  (Morgantown) 
W.  Virginia  (Farm) 

2 b( 
q.2 

|i 

) 

Totals 

16 


It  would  seem  that  all  the  states  have  the  agricultural 
colleges  or  schools  with  an  average  permanent  investment  al- 
ready of  more  than  a million  dollars  each. 

Connecticut  cannot  afford  to  do  less  than  keep  pace  with 
her  sister  states. 

Nor  yet  has  the  whole  story  been  told.  We  are  just  across 
the  threshold  of  a condition  of  public  affairs  wherein  the  main- 
tenance of  the  stability  and  prosperity  of  the  entire  agricultural 
community  is  of  absolutely  vital  interest  to  the  nation  at  large, 
and  to  the  state  of  Connecticut  as  well,  for  a reason  not  yet 
suggested. 

Rightfully  or  wrongfully  as  the  case  may  be,  we  are  at  the 
beginning  of  a long,  determined,  and  at  times  violent  struggle 
which  has  for  its  aim  a tremendous  change  in  the  final  distribu- 
tion of  the  earnings  of  labor  and  of  capital.  The  demand  of 
the  agitators  of  the  struggle  is  that  the  advantages  due  to  in- 
vention and  to  improvements  in  production  and  transportation 
shall  be  made  to  inure  to  the  benefit  of  all  the  people  in  equal 
part;  that  all  shall  have  a like  share  in  the  natural  resources  of 
the  earth  and  in  all  unearned  increments  of  value ; that  all  men 
shall  have  equality  of  opportunity  irrespective  of  differing  con- 
ditions of  wealth  and  birth;  that  nothing  savoring  of  monoply 
shall  be  permitted  to  exist;  that  each  man  shall  have  the  largest 
possible  share  of  the  ultimate  as  well  as  immediate  product  of 
his  labor;  and  that  all  this  shall  be  brought  about  by  laws  as 
inflexible  and  all  compelling  as  those  which  swing  the  earth  in 
its  mighty  orbit.  Such  is  the  ideal — sometimes  lacking  in  in- 
telligent and  coherent  expression — which  lies  at  the  core  of  our 
labor  disturbances  and  our  present  political  tumults,  notwith- 
standing some  admixture  of  mere  selfishness  and  ignoble 
discontent. 

It  needs  no  extra  keenness  of  the  vision  to  perceive  the  bat- 
tle is  already  on  and  no  gift  of  prophecy  to  foresee  that  it  will 
increase  rather  than  diminish  in  intensity  for  long  years  to  come 
and  that  it  is  wholly  probable  that  no  man  on  earth,  will  live  to 
see  the  final  solution. 

The  writer  does  not  for  an  instant  contemplate  the  utter- 
ance of  any  expression  here  of  opinion  as  to  what  that  final 


IT 


result  will  be  or  what  it  ought  to  be.  He  is  simply  dealing  now 
with  the  period  of  convulsion  upon  which  we  have  entered  as  a 
mighty  fact  and  with  the  relation  of  the  agricultural  community 
to  that  fact. 

If  Paris  had  really  been  France  as  its  people  have  been  fond 
of  saying  in  the  past,  there  would  to-day  be  nothing  left  worthy 
of  the  name  of  France.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  agricultural 
community  of  France  that  nation  would  have  been  torn  into 
disjointed  fragments  long  ago  by  the  shifty  and  mercurial  popu- 
lace of  Paris. 

What  probabilities  of  perpetuity  would  remain  to  our  insti- 
tutions if  all  the  people  of  the  United  States  were  what  the 
cities  of  New  York  and  Chicago  are?  True  it  is  that  the  great 
cities  draw  to  themselves  quite  their  share  of  men  who  are 
bright  and  strong  but  brightness  and  strength  alone  never  yet 
saved  a people  or  a nation  from  destruction  and  decay.  The 
one  element  of  character  which,  more  than  any  other  differ- 
entiates the  English  people  from  the  old  Romans,  alike  as 
they  are  in  aptitude  for  war  and  terrestrial  dominion,  is 
conservatism — the  taking  of  ample  time  to  think  a thing  over 
before  consenting  to  any  change;  it  is  the  one  element  which 
has  already  given  the  English  their  larger  permanence  and  suc- 
cess and  it  yet  casts  a long  light  adown  their  future. 

It  is  that  conservatism,  tempered  by  intelligence,  which 
American  agriculturists  are  adapted  to  furnish  for  the  long  and 
uncertain  struggle  upon  which  we  have  entered.  The  import- 
ance of  the  preservation  of  this  great  conservative  element 
cannot  be  over-estimated.  It  is  to  be  the  balance  wheel  of  the 
whirl  which  at  times  is  like  to  threaten  the  very  existence  of 
the  Republic  and  even  the  duration  of  the  social  order  in  any 
form.  A successful  and  peaceful  issue  of  this  struggle  may  not 
be  possible  without  it. 

This  is  one  reason  which,  here  in  Connecticut,  should  give 
pause  to  the  thoughtful  men  of  the  cities  in  any  project  to 
diminish  the  political  power  of  the  rural  communities  to  the 
extent  of  enacting  representation  in  the  General  Assembly  in 
exact  accordance  with  population.  In  this  matter  the  men  who 
have  the  good  of  the  cities  at  heart  are  sure  to  find  their  ac- 


18 


count  in  fostering  agriculture  and  maintaining  the  ranks  of 
the  farmers  undiminished. 

The  drift  of  the  young  from  farm  to  city  is  clear  before  all 
eyes ; they  like  the  labor  which  is  turned  into  money  at  regular 
intervals;  they  like  bath  rooms,  water  closets  and  furnace  heat; 
they  like  to  be  in  social  touch  with  their  fellows,  within  easy 
reach  of  entertainments  and  they  appreciate  the  passing  show 
of  city  life  with  its  apparently  greater  prizes.  There  are  men 
and  women  for  whom  the  first  uncovering  of  the  brown  earth 
in  spring,  the  early  struggle  of  the  grass  to  be  green,  the  un- 
folding of  the  leaf,  the  white  wonder  of  the  apple  blossoms,  the 
grain  billowing  under  the  wind  of  June,  the  new  mown  hay  in 
summer,  the  ripened  corn  of  September,  the  leaves  of  October 
rich  with  the  hues  caught  from  all  the  sunsets  of  their  lives, 
the  starry  heavens  of  the  clear  winter  nights  and  the  largeness 
of  God’s  temple  built  over  all  more  than  compensate  for  what 
the  cities  have  to  offer.  But  some  kinds  of  human  nature  are 
more  common  than  some  other  kinds  and  the  drift  to  the  cities 
continues  nevertheless. 

For  the  nation’s  good  and  for  the  preservation  of  a powerful 
conservative  force  pending  the  settlement  of  the  great  questions 
with  which  America  is  now  grappling,  all  practicable  means  for 
stopping  this  drift  from  country  to  city  should  be  adopted. 
The  advent  of  the  bicycle  and  the  trolley  could  not  be  more 
timely  if  it  had  been,  as  it  may  have  been,  the  direct  and  imme- 
diate work  of  omniscience.  The  good-roads  movement  is  a god- 
send in  the  same  direction;  and  no  man  in  city  or  country 
should  hesitate  in  incurring  whatever  public  debt  may  be  neces- 
sary to  convert  all  our  chief  highways  into  the  best  practicable 
condition.  The  farmers  themselves  should  see  to  it  that  certain 
of  the  so-called  “modern  conveniences”  are  adopted  in  their 
homes.  Bath  rooms,  water  closets,  and  furnace  or  steam 
heat  should  be  as  common  in  the  country  as  in  the  city.  And 
when  it  comes  to  fostering  agriculture  and  improving  the  at- 
tractiveness of  rural  life  by  diffusing  an  improved  education 
among  the  farmers  by  the  teaching  of  agriculture  in  a state 
institution,  it  is  the  height  of  absurdity  to  deal  with  the  matter 
with  other  than  a liberal  hand  in  view  of  the  gravity  of  the 
political  results  involved. 


19 


It  is  not  an  unknown  proposition,  here  in  Connecticut,  that 
to  maintain  an  agricultural  college  in  each  state  involves  the 
repeated  duplication  of  the  same  kind  and  degree  of  research 
and  experiment  and  that  it  would  be  a wiser  expenditure  of 
public  moneys  intended  for  the  benefit  of  agriculture  to  gather 
together  a great  body  of  scientists  at  one  place — Washington 
city  for  instance — where  competent  men,  each  group  working 
by  itself  in  a special  line,  should  delve  into  the  problems  of 
agriculture,  with  no  duplication  of  work,  and  be  enabled  to  con- 
tinuously make  deeper  and  deeper  progress  into  the  secrets  of 
nature. 

It  might  almost  as  well  be  argued  that  the  cause  of  educa- 
tion in  general  could  be  best  furthered  in  the  same  way  and 
that  if  we  only  had  a big  enough  university  at  Washington,  the 
little  red  school  houses  and  the  high  schools  of  the  villages  and 
cities  could  be  dispensed  with.  The  very  first  object  and  pur- 
pose of  the  establishment  of  agricultural  colleges  in  the  several 
states  is  to  disseminate  agricultural  education  abroad  and  among 
all  the  people.  For  such  a purpose  as  that — the  first  and  high- 
est purpose  aimed  at  in  the  multiplication  of  the  agricultural 
colleges — the  supposed  great  body  of  agricultural  scientists  at 
Washington  would  be  an  impotent  and  helpless  institution.  ' 

Such  a great  central  institution  for  original  and  ever  deep- 
ening research,  by  the  most  competent  scientists  to  be  found, 
ought  to  exist  and  the  federal  government  ought  to  pay  for  it. 
There  ought  to  be  just  such  a purveyor  of  information  whose 
discoveries  should  be  delivered  to  the  people  by  the  local  insti- 
tutions, but  as  an  instrument  of  general  agricultural  education 
itself  and  without  the  aid  and  instrumentality  of  the  local 
agencies,  it  would  have  almost  no  practical  value  whatever. 

Moreover  the  United  States  of  America  constitute  a vast 
terrestrial  empire  embracing  about  every  kind  and  shade  of 
temperature,  climate,  soil  and  adaptability  for  crops.  The  range 
and  variety  in  each  of  these  matters  is  vast.  Drainage  is  a 
matter  of  great  interest  along  the  valley  of  the  Wabash  as  is 
irrigation  in  Arizona,  but  neither  is  of  everlasting  importance 
on  the  slopes  of  the  Green  Mountains.  It  would  not  be  useful 
in  any  high  degree  to  teach  the  agriculture  of  cotton  and  sugar 


20 


in  Connecticut  nor  that  of  cranberries  and  herds-grass  in  Missis- 
sippi. For  the  observation  and  study  of  all  these  differing  condi- 
tions and  phenomena  and  for  the  teaching  of  agriculture  adapted 
thereto,  the  chances  are  more  than  a hundred  to  one  in  favor 
of  getting  the  better  results  from  the  many  state  colleges  than 
from  a single  great  federal  institution.  And  still  further,  with- 
out the  state  colleges,  the  local  lecture  systems,  and  the  exten- 
sion courses  referred  to  hereinafter — which  possibly  quite  equal 
in  value  the  immediate  college  work — would  not  be  a possibility. 

Again,  it  has  been  said  that  the  teaching  of  agriculture,  under 
the  federal  endowments  and  state  appropriations,  could  be  more 
economically  and  effectively  accomplished  by  and  at  the  institu- 
tions already  long  established  of  the  ordinary  college  type. 
That  proposition  has  already  been  carefully  considered.  A com- 
petent committee  on  education,  appointed  by  the  National 
Grange,  made  an  investigation  into  this  matter  as  regards  the 
states  generally  a few  years  ago.  They  rendered  their  written 
report  in  1892,  and  concluded  with  these  words  : 

“ If  these  records  show  anything,  they  plainly  show  that  thus 
far  none  of  the  Agricultural  Colleges  which  is  connected 
with  a classical  institution  has  been  successful  in  imparting 
agricultural  education,  and  a portion  of  them  have  been  most 
dismal  failures,  while  on  the  other  hand,  the  independent  Agri- 
cultural and  Mechanical  Colleges  are,  without  exception,  emi- 
nently successful.” 

********** 

“Prof.  Atkinson,  of  West  Virginia  University,  says  : ‘Indus- 
trial colleges,  to  succeed,  must  be  managed  by  men  who  are 
known  to  be  in  sympathy  with  the  people  who  are  to  be  bene- 
fitted,  and  can  never  succeed  as  a side  show  to  a classical  insti' 
tution  any  more  than  this  progressive  nineteenth' century  can 
live  in  the  atmosphere  of  ancient  Greece  or  Rome.’  ” 

And  thereupon  this  committee  asked  for  a federal  law  sepa- 
rating the  agricultural  colleges  from  the  classical  institutions. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  give  here  some  idea  of  the  work  which 
Stars'  Agricultural  College  is  trying  to  do.  Under  “Mathe- 
matics ” it  teaches  arithmetic,  bookkeeping,  algebra,  geometry, 
trigonometry  and  surveying.  Under  “ Domestic  Science”  (for 
the  young  women)  it  teaches  cooking,  sewing,  laundering, 
household  economics,  hygiene,  sanitation  and  music.  Under 
“Mechanical  Arts”  it  teaches  physics,  free-hand  drawing^ 


21 


mechanical  drawing,  and  the  simpler  forms  of  iron  and  wood 
working.  As  required  by  the  .federal  law  it  teaches  military 
tactics.  Under  “English”  it  teaches  language,  rhetoric,  com- 
position and  elocution,  with  courses  in  English  and  American 
literature.  Under  “Agriculture  ” it  teaches  agriculture,  botany, 
chemistry,  entomology,  geology,  horticulture,  physiology,  veter- 
inary science  and  zoology.  Under  what  might  be  called  “ Citi- 
zenship” it  teaches  history,  civil  government,  political  economy 
and  ethics.  Practical  instruction  on  the  farm  and  in  the  orchard 
and  garden  goes  hand  in  hand  with  teaching  from  text  books. *■" 

Since  the  beginning  of  1881  the  college  has  had  one  thousand 
and  sixty-eight  students,  and  graduated  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
three. 

The  work  of  the  college  is  not  confined  to  the  college  build- 
ings and  grounds.  About  two  years  since  it  began  to  send  out 
its  professors  and  teachers  to  lecture  before  farmers’  conventions, 
farmers’  institutes  and  granges,  the  lectures  being  accompanied 
by  stereopticon  illustrations  when  practicable.  The  president 
of  the  college  has  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  of  these  lectures 
to  his  credit  on  entomology,  geology,  and  the  natural  features 
of  the  Yellowstone  Park;  the  professor  of  chemistry  and  physics 
has  thirty-six  of  these  lectures  to  his  credit  on  “Western 
Scenery  and  Life,”  “ What  the  Agricultural  College  Can  Give 
a Farmer’s  JBoy,”  “Beauty  and  Utility,”  “An  Uplift  in  Rural 
Life,”  “Chemistry  of  Plant  Life,”  “Agricultural  Chemistry,” 
“Chemistry  of  Carbon  Compounds,”  “Climatology,”  “Home 
Studies  for  Rural  People,”  and  “Dietary  and  Food  Economics 
the  professor  of  agriculture  has  nineteen  lectures  to  his  credit 
on  “The  Dairy  Cow  and  Her  Products,”  “Forage  Crops  as 
Substitutes  for  Hay,”  “Soiling  and  Soiling  Crops,”  “Feeding 
Dairy  Stock,”  “ Fertilizer  Experiments”  and  “ Dairy  Education 
in  Connecticut;”  the  professor  of  horticulture  has  ten  lectures 
to  his  credit  relating  to  his  department,  the  professor  of  veterin- 
ary science  six,  and  the  teachers  of  domestic  science  eight — in 
• all,  two  hundred  and  four  lectures  within  about  the  time  stated. 

Then  the  college  has  an  extension  department,  the  work  of 
which  was  begun  in  October,  1896,  combining  the  correspond- 
ence-school idea  with  home  studies  and  extension  lecture  courses, 
to  which  will  be  added  the  traveling  library — this  last  a new 


22 


idea  originating  at  Storrs.  The  object  of  this  department  is  to 
provide  home  study  along  lines  similar  to  those  pursued  at  the 
college.  The  course  of  study  covers  two  years,  with  examina- 
tion papers,  an  annual  commencement  day,  and  the  granting  of 
certificates  to  all  who  satisfactorily  complete  the  course  of  study 
laid  down.  Text  books  are  furnished  by  the  college  at  cost,  the 
amount  called  for  the  first  year  being  $2.40,  and  the  second  year 
a little  more.  At  present  the  text  books  used  in  the  men’s 
course  for  the  first  year  are:  “First  Principles  of  Agriculture,” 
by  Voorhees;  “Practical  Farm  Chemistry,”  by  Greiner;  “Realm 
of  Nature,”  Part  2,  by  Mill;  “Story  of  the  Plants,”  by  Allen; 
and  for  the  second  year,  “Principles  of  Fruit-Growing,”  by 
Bailey;  or  “Milk  and  its  Products,”  by  Wing;  “The  Spraying 
of  Plants,”  by  Lodeman,  or  “The  Dairy  Herd,”  U.  S.  Govern- 
ment; “Realm  of  Nature,”  Part  1,  by  Mill,  and  “The  Story  of 
Bacteria,”  by  Conn.  The  books  for  the  women’s  course  in  the 
first  year  are:  “Home  Floriculture,”  by  Rexford;  “Easiest 
Ways  in  Housekeeping  and  Cooking,”  by  Helen  Campbell; 
“Realm  of  Nature,”  Part  2,  by  Mill;  “Story  of  the  Plants,”  by 
Allen ; and  for  the  second  year,  “ Household  Economics,”  by 
Helen  Campbell,  or  “The  Way  We  Did  at  Cooking  School,”  by 
Virginia  Reed ; “Health  and  How  to  Promote  It,”  by  McSherry; 
“Realm  of  Nature,”  Part  1,  by  Mill,  and  “The  Story  of  Germ 
Life,”  by  Conn.  The  record  of  the  first  year’s  operation  of  the  * 
extension  department  shows  a total  enrollment  of  two  hundred 
and  sixteen  members,  of  whom  about  seventy-five  remain  in  the 
second  year.  The  membership  for  the  second  year  is  probably 
larger  than  for  the  first.  At  the  time  of  preparing  this  paper  it 
was  too  early  to  speak  positively  about  that  matter.  The  bulk 
of  the  entries  naturally  come  in  midwinter. 

The  friends  of  Storrs  Agricultural  College  are  willing  that  it 
shall  be  judged  by  this  record  without  the  making  of  any  allow- 
ances whatever.  But  the  path  so  far  trodden  has  not  been  a 
plain  and  easy  one.  The  college  had  before  it  no  standard  ex- 
ample, of  long  success,  suited  to  Connecticut  conditions,  after  * 
which  it  might  easily  pattern,  wherefore  it  has  had  to  blaze  its 
way,  in  some  substantial  part,  both  as  to  methods  and  studies. 

Again,  the  world  has  an  abundance  of  men  fitted  by  educa- 
tion, inherited  temperament  and  training  to  fill  the  chairs  of 


23 


instruction  in  colleges  of  the  ordinary  type  but  this  has  not 
been  the  fact  with  regard  to  agricultural  colleges — comparatively 
new  as  they  are — which  need  not  men  of  lesser  attainments  than 
those  fitted  for  ordinary  college  professorships  but  men  of 
greater  attainments.  To  place  an  agricultural  college  on  the 
plane  of  full  efficiency  the  special  studies  which  its  instructors 
teach  need  to  be  based  upon  a broad  foundation  of  general  edu- 
cation and  culture. 

Still  again  it  is  no  secret  that  Storrs  has  been  sorely  ham- 
pered for  funds.  Its  struggles  in  the  legislature  and  in  the 
courts  are  pretty  well  known  and  read  of  all  men  at  least  in 
Connecticut.  Specific  and  detailed  reference  thereto  has  been 
omitted  in  this  paper,  not  out  of  consideration  for  Storrs,  but 
out  of  consideration  for  others. 

While — as  we  look  at  it — a good  beginning  has  been  made 
at  Storrs,  its  friends  look  to  it  for  higher  things  than  it  has  yet 
accomplished. 

The  ideal  these  friends  set  for  it  comprehends  the  teaching 
of  the  merely  mechanical  operations  of  agriculture  and  the 
transaction  of  the  business  operations  connected  therewith,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  drill  in  the  use  of  the  English  language  till  it 
becomes  an  instrument  of  clear  and  facile  expression ; and  the 
grounding  of  the  students  in  such  historical,  economic  and  polit- 
ical knowledge  as  tends  to  intelligent  and  virile  citizenship. 
On  this  as  a basis  it  means  to  impart  such  a scientific  knowledge 
of  agriculture,  in  the  full  and  broad  meaning  of  those  words, 
that  its  diploma  will  justly  take  full  and  equal  rank  with  those 
of  the  universities  in  indicating  the  training  and  energizing  of 
the  perceptive  and  reasoning  faculties — sending  out  its  gradu- 
ates not  only  to  sweeten  and  dignify  agriculture  in  its  daily  life 
but  fully  equipped  to  wrest  from  nature  by  research,  by  thought 
and  by  invention,  secrets  which  shall  arm  agriculture  with  do- 
minion over  the  germination  and  growth  of  plants  and  animals 
akin  in  god-like  power  to  man’s  mastery  over  steam,  electricity 
and  the  Roentgen  Ray. 

The  facts  of  the  situation  justify  the  farmers  in  standing  as 
one  man  for  the  progressive  and  continuous  development  of  the 
State  Agricultural  Colleges,  secure  in  the  position  that  what- 


24 


ever  of  immediate  good  may  come  to  agriculture  the  vaster 
good  will  inure  to  the  whole  public  and  that  in  the  not  distant 
future  that  public  will  thank  the  courage,  the  wisdom  and  the 
foresight  which  persist  to  the  attainment  of  full,  abundant  and 
complete  success. 


GEER’S  PRINT, 


IARTFORD,  CONN. 


